Author Archives: jonathanspyer

Jerusalem Post, 6/1. The latest reports from Syria indicate that the ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey in Syria is already in trouble.  Fighting has continued in the Wadi Barada area north west of Damascus as regime forces and Hizballah … Continue reading →

American Interest, 15/12 (Co-authored with Benjamin Weinthal) The instability that has swept over the Middle East over the past half-decade has its winners and its losers. For the most part, the much-beleaguered Kurds are to be numbered in the former … Continue reading →

Jerusalem Post, 16/12 The battle for Aleppo is over.  The Assad regime and its Russian, Iranian and Shia paramilitary allies have achieved victory. The process of evacuation of civilians and rebels is yet to be completed.  Syrian oppositionists are alleging … Continue reading →

Jerusalem Post, 2/12 Two incidents this week showcase the complexity of the challenges facing Israel on its northern front. In the first, an air strike killed four members of the Islamic State-affiliated Khalid Ibn al-Walid Brigade after a patrol of … Continue reading →

Jerusalem Post, 11/11 The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces last Friday announced the commencement of an operation to conquer the northern Syrian city of Raqqa.  The operation was designated ‘Euphrates Wrath.’ Raqqa is the capital of the ‘Caliphate’ maintained by the … Continue reading →

  Jerusalem Post, 4/11 The Iraqi special forces have now entered the first neighborhoods of the city of Mosul.  Captured by the Islamic State in the summer of 2014, the city constitutes the jewel in the crown of the Sunni … Continue reading →

Jerusalem Post, 21/10 Tremor in Yemen The Yemeni civil war, in which an Iran-supported Shia militia, the Ansar Allah movement (the ‘Houthis’) is clashing with a Saud- led coalition supporting the government of President  Abd Rabbo Mansur al-Hadi,  is largely … Continue reading →

The Australian, 8/10 (originally published under the title ‘A Malaise that’s Destroying Iraq’) Mosul in early autumn looks peaceful from the Bashiqa ridge. The first positions of the Iraqi Kurdish army, the Peshmerga, are here, 12km from the city. The … Continue reading →

A version of this article appears in the current edition of the Jerusalem Report magazine. 25/9 Black smoke was rising from the Qayara oilfelds as the refugees huddled in the shade.  They had arrived that morning – from ISIS controlled … Continue reading →

Jerusalem Post, 2/9 The Turkish incursion into the north Syrian town of Jarabulus and its environs, which began on August 24, is the latest dramatic re-shuffling of the deck in a long and agonizing conflict. But what is its deeper … Continue reading →